Yes, as I have stated on public record at committee meetings, this is something we must address. I do believe we will finally put this to bed in the next term of council. It is only fair that all citizens pay equally for transit and we must budget accordingly. BLAST is not a pipe-dream, but a strong plan built on necessity and I strongly feel with major improvements, we will finally leap from stagnation in use of transit in Hamilton to a robust and widely used system. The ongoing increases in price of gas and parking will help too.

Yes, I support phasing out area rating for transit. In short, phasing out area rating for transit will help to better fund the entire transit system, equalize payment for this vital service across the entire City of Hamilton, improve service to underserviced areas, and provide new service to unserviced areas. Eliminating area rating for transit will move the burden to the City as a whole and not to individual wards, community groups, and residents who are currently forced to advocate and then pay for improvements to transit in urban areas that desperately need them.

I do not support the area rating for transit that has different parts of the urbanized city pay a different tax rate determined by the service level they receive. Hamilton pays a higher transit area tax rate than Stoney Creek yet their service is provided directly to McMaster U. More kms, less tax. This is unfair. I support a single unified area rating for all urbanized parts of the city where the cost of service improvements is shared equally by everyone.